The Solitaire Mystery (Jostein Gaarder)

The Solitaire Mystery

Jostein Gaarder

Blurb: Twelve-year-old Hans Thomas and his father are on a journey to Greece in search of the boy's mother when a series of unusual incidents occurs: a dwarf gives Hans Thomas a magnifying glass; a baker gives him a bun containing a miniature book that tells the story of a sailor shipwrecked on a desert island; a pack of playing cards seem to have a life of their own and what of the Joker who looks too deeply and too much?

ISBN: 1857998650 (Paperback)

Year: 1990

Publisher: Phoenix 

Pages: 319 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the book

2. Book Club page for the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Blog on the book

5. Review of the book

Thereby Hangs a Tail - A Chet and Bernie Mystery #2 (Spencer Quinn)

Thereby Hangs a Tail - A Chet and Bernie Mystery #2

Spencer Quinn

Blurb: Bernie Little and his canine companion, Chet, are private investigators. Both have had some setbacks in life - Bernie in combat, Chet in K-9 dog-training school - but together they make up a team like no other.

In Thereby Hangs a Tail, Bernie and Chet are hired to investigate threats made against an unlikely target - a pretty, pampered show dog named Princess. What seems like a joke turns serious when Princess and her owner are abducted. And to make matters worse, Bernie's on-again, off-again girlfriend, reporter Susie Sanchez, disappears too.

When Chet gets separated from Bernie, he tries to put the pieces together, find his way home, and save the day.

With genuine suspense and intrigue, combined with humour and insight into the special bond between man and dog, Thereby Hangs a Tail will have everyone talking - and chuckling.

ISBN: 9781741759358 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Pages: 309 (Fiction)

Links

1. Goodreads page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Publisher's page

4. Review of the book

5. Official site of the series

Storm Peak - A Jesse Parker Mystery #1 (John A. Flanagan)

Storm Peak ( A Jesse Parker Mystery #1)

John A. Flanagan

Blurb: Jesse Parker, an ex-Denver police detective, has returned home to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to spend the winter working the ski patrol and taking it easy. But he is reluctantly dragged back into a world of violence and murder when a serial killer arrives in town.

After a skier is found murdered, Lee Torrens, the local sheriff, asks her old friend Jesse to help out with the investigation. As the pair work together, the embers of an old union re-ignite, but the killer continues to stalk the town, leaving little clues as to his motive. And his growing notoriety brings complications that will shake the foundations of the small town.

Are the murders the random acts of a psychopath, or a cold, calculated escalation of terror? No-one is safe.

ISBN: 9781741669534 (Paperback)

Year: 2009

Publisher: Bantam

Pages: 355 (Fiction)

Links

1. Review of the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Google books page

4. Wikipedia page for the author

5. Good reads page

The Water Room (Christopher Fowler)

The Water Room

Christopher Fowler

Blurb: An oasis in the heart of Kentish Town, Balaklava Street is ripe for gentrification. But then the body of an elderly woman is found at No. 5. Her demise seems to have been peaceful but for the fact that her throat is full of river water...

For the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit, led by London's longest-serving detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, this curious death marks the beginning of a distinctly sinister investigation. And the new owner of No. 5 is understandably unsettled by the damp in the basement of her home, some particularly resilient spiders and the ghostly sound of rushing water.

Unearthing hitherto undiscovered secrets, the two octogenarian policemen learn that, in a London filled with the rich, the poor and the dispossessed, there's still something a desperate individual is willing to kill for. And kill again to protect.

Armed only with their wits, their own idiosyncratic practices and a plentiful supply of boiled sweets, Bryant and May come face to face with madness, greed and revenge in a wickedly sinuous mystery that goes to the heart of every London home.

ISBN: 9780553824681 (Paperback)

Year: 2004

Publisher: Bantam Books

Pages: 430 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's Wikipedia page

2. Review of the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Another review

5. Blog on the book

Disco Mystery - Moshi Monsters Pick Your Path #1 (Lauren Holowaty)

Disco Mystery - Moshi Monsters Pick Your Path #1

Lauren Holowaty

Blurb: There's something strange going on in Monstro City. The Underground Disco has gone eerily silent...

One of the fangtastic Fizzbangs has gone missing and the other bands are refusing to perform until their friend has returned! Will you see if you can find them, or seek your own monSTARdom in Rockstar Reef?

Pick your path and decide

ISBN: 9781409390770 (Paperback)

Year: 2011

Publisher: Sunbird

Pages: 77 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from the Moshi Monsters store

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Review of book

4. Blog on Moshi Monsters

5. Quiz on Moshi Monster books